Going South
Wednesday, 20 September 2023 16:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
comet_scoutTraveled with my mom and grandma last week (and one of my mom's friends and my stepfather). We went to the (brazillian) south in Canela/Gramado and Bento Gonçalves. I'm tired, so I'll mumble a bit.
There is a semi-museum/theatre-like experience about the life of a couple that took a ship to Brazil when Portugal was trying to get cheap workforce. My Grandma's grandfather was an Italian immigrant, and it was interesting to hear her talk about the story he would tell her about his trip as a kid by ship. [TW for something a bit depressing] They used to have one casket where they would place the bodies of those who died during the trip, but would only throw the bodies overboard and keep the casket, my grandma told me that he would sit next to a small hole in the cargo area to watch the bodies fall, he would cry telling it but my grandma was too young to truly grasp the severity of the feeling.
A more positive story she told me while we were visiting another wine place, more about that in a bit, is of an uncle of hers who moved... west...? (sorry, escaping me now.) then more jungle, as a colono to build a living. Using parts of one of the carts they build a house and would use other carts to make two-day trips to the market, stay overnight, and then back through the then-still forest. She told me they had a (female) horse who would invade the pantry to steal the salt and seeds, and that her cousins would steal Polenta before it was done (That bit makes me wonder if that's why my family is used to making Polenta that is more wet to eat with chicken than more solid like it's originally...)
The rest of the trip was more about eating and the view, and also wine. There are tons of Wine places there. How I said the one I mentioned above is from a family that has been there for a very long time, the woman who runs the place is building a place of the history of the family on the stone house her... gran-grand-grandfather (?) built when first moving here. There was also a famous three that had a small cavern-like space at the roots where supposedly a family lived under before being able to build a stone house near it (that is a restaurant now, we didn't eat there).
We took the train there to Carlos Barbosa and then drove to Canela, where we took another Airbnb, the one we took previously was simpler, from an older couple who offered my mom and stepdad some homemade wine, we offered a soup my grandma made back. The Airbnb we took later was fancier, the bed was nicer, but it was narrower and the bathroom waters were frustrating to deal with, we were unable to truly figure it out.
Canela and Gramado are more tourist cities, so pricier.... and IMO not as scenic, but they still have great restaurants, we visited a very beautiful Lavanda garden there, and I got to see NASA's museum. I do want to explore other attractions, but we are out of time and tired as hell. It's a lot colder there, but the last two days the temperature skyrocketed and the last day of our trip was driving all the way back to the airport, we did make a few stops, where I went into a labyrinth and got to get some interesting teas at a tea shop. Then took a one-and-a-half-hour flight, then another trip back home. I wasn't even able to go directly to my apartment because we got home very late and my sister had the key. These two days was me resting.
Anyway... I've been playing a solo journaling game called Delivered! and playing tons of Voices of the Void. I still have some cleaning to do, and the heat is fucking killing me. ugh.
Also, the little Aliens statues... I kept seeing them EVERYWHERE during our trip, but sadly this was the only picture I was able to take of them, lol.
There is a semi-museum/theatre-like experience about the life of a couple that took a ship to Brazil when Portugal was trying to get cheap workforce. My Grandma's grandfather was an Italian immigrant, and it was interesting to hear her talk about the story he would tell her about his trip as a kid by ship. [TW for something a bit depressing] They used to have one casket where they would place the bodies of those who died during the trip, but would only throw the bodies overboard and keep the casket, my grandma told me that he would sit next to a small hole in the cargo area to watch the bodies fall, he would cry telling it but my grandma was too young to truly grasp the severity of the feeling.
A more positive story she told me while we were visiting another wine place, more about that in a bit, is of an uncle of hers who moved... west...? (sorry, escaping me now.) then more jungle, as a colono to build a living. Using parts of one of the carts they build a house and would use other carts to make two-day trips to the market, stay overnight, and then back through the then-still forest. She told me they had a (female) horse who would invade the pantry to steal the salt and seeds, and that her cousins would steal Polenta before it was done (That bit makes me wonder if that's why my family is used to making Polenta that is more wet to eat with chicken than more solid like it's originally...)
The rest of the trip was more about eating and the view, and also wine. There are tons of Wine places there. How I said the one I mentioned above is from a family that has been there for a very long time, the woman who runs the place is building a place of the history of the family on the stone house her... gran-grand-grandfather (?) built when first moving here. There was also a famous three that had a small cavern-like space at the roots where supposedly a family lived under before being able to build a stone house near it (that is a restaurant now, we didn't eat there).
We took the train there to Carlos Barbosa and then drove to Canela, where we took another Airbnb, the one we took previously was simpler, from an older couple who offered my mom and stepdad some homemade wine, we offered a soup my grandma made back. The Airbnb we took later was fancier, the bed was nicer, but it was narrower and the bathroom waters were frustrating to deal with, we were unable to truly figure it out.
Canela and Gramado are more tourist cities, so pricier.... and IMO not as scenic, but they still have great restaurants, we visited a very beautiful Lavanda garden there, and I got to see NASA's museum. I do want to explore other attractions, but we are out of time and tired as hell. It's a lot colder there, but the last two days the temperature skyrocketed and the last day of our trip was driving all the way back to the airport, we did make a few stops, where I went into a labyrinth and got to get some interesting teas at a tea shop. Then took a one-and-a-half-hour flight, then another trip back home. I wasn't even able to go directly to my apartment because we got home very late and my sister had the key. These two days was me resting.
Anyway... I've been playing a solo journaling game called Delivered! and playing tons of Voices of the Void. I still have some cleaning to do, and the heat is fucking killing me. ugh.
Also, the little Aliens statues... I kept seeing them EVERYWHERE during our trip, but sadly this was the only picture I was able to take of them, lol.
no subject
Date: Monday, 25 March 2024 19:43 (UTC)